Dashboard May Not Be Just Another CRM

0

Startup Lead Log recently launched CRM product, Dashboard, that is hoping to differentiate itself from the millions of other CRMs in the enterprise space through simplicity. Dashboard is an easy-to-use, simple web service that is targeted towards small businesses looking to turn sales leads into deals.

There’s no doubt that Dashboard keeps it basic with its options. There are four main sections: the main page, to-dos, leads and deals. There’s no software needed to download the sales and management application; users can access Dashboard from any computer. It’s fairly simple to save notes on each lead, deal or to-do, attach documents, add contacts and update calendars. Unfortunately, being too basic can have its drawbacks too. For example, users cannot add leads via email, only manually or through downloading a CRV file. Currently the application is in free beta testing but will soon be a paid service (this will be rolled out in April). Lead Log will charge $25 per month for the first two users, and then $25 per month for every additional user.

Though basic it its current state, Dashboard will get some additional bells and whistles in April. Dashboard will allow users add leads that are specific to industry, will have limited integration with email, and will even contain social networking features like a live Twitter-like feed for company-wide activity in the application. Recognizing that the CRM space is highly competitive, the company is looking to add even more features that will distinguish its product from other easy-to-use, similar CRMs such as PipelineDeals.com, Leads360.com, and Highrisehq.com.

Post-April, Dashboard plans to launch itself as a full-service (and perhaps not so simple) CRM platform, aiming to be the “anti-SalesForce.com.” Dashboard will feature support for mobile apps and will have a lead marketplace where users can buy lead templates and complete email support. The CRM will also contain an iPhone App-like application store, where developers can build SaaS applications on top of its platform.

This is an ambitious plan for a start-up that’s less than a year old. But the company tells TCIT that it’s already receiving positive responses about Dashboard from small businesses who are testing the beta version. Lead Log, founded by Esteban Gonzalez and Jared Opper, has received an undisclosed amount of angel funding from friends and family in the past few months and will be entering another round of angel funding soon.

It will undoubtedly be interesting to see how Dashboard transforms itself from a simple CRM application to a comprehensive yet easy-to-use CRM platform. Lead Log’s ambitions seem to be forward-thinking and innovative so it might just be the disruptive technology that is needed in the CRM space.

I wouldn’t say there are “millions” of CRMs. There’s Salesforce and, maybe, SugarCRM and that’s about it. The market is actually pretty void of decent options.

http://blog.directededge.com/ Scott Wheeler

@pwb – Soho, Pipeline, Salesforce, Highrise, Leopard, Heap, Noradi … I’ve seen at least a dozen more … there’s such a dizzying number of web-based CRMs out there that I suspect some of them might somewhere be a diamond in the rough, but I’ve tried out so many of them that I’ve grown cynical.

http://blog.directededge.com/ Scott Wheeler

I’ll add there that I was one of the ones that tried out Dashboard right off the bat and it looks promising, so I’ll keep an eye on it, but it’s not yet ready for us to use for our main CRM needs.

Paul

Looks like a “me too” product without any reporting. I am not sure I would describe that as disruptive. There is nothing innovative here.

http://www.1000freeonlinegames.net/ 1000FreeOnlineGames

I’m with you

http://www.cardgameinstructions.net/ CardGameInstructions

in the video looks pretty cool!!!

http://www.LeadsIntoDeals.com Esteban Gonzalez

Hi guys, thank you for your comments. I’m Esteban and I work on dashboard. We have been live for 8 days and we have got a lot of people signing up to try our app. As well mentioned by Leena (to whom I’m tremendously thankful), we are in the early stages of a pretty innovative lead management system. Obviously, we are missing some important features that we are going to be adding soon. Please follow us on twitter @getrealordie as we are going to be updating it frequently.

On a different note, I wanted to make a clarification, we are not a CRM, we are a Lead Management Platform. While I think a CRM is more appropriate for “post-sales” activities, a lead management application like ours is better suited for “pre-sales” activities.

Again, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me. BTW, you can try our app for free at LeadsIntoDeals.com

Matt

What did you use to make the video?

http://justinmayer.com/ Justin Mayer

@Esteban: I think your definition of CRM differs from everybody else’s. In the minds of everyone I’ve ever talked to about this topic, CRM and “lead management” are equivalent.

CRM may encompass post-sale activity, but its primary focus is keeping track of leads and trying to convert them into customers.

You could emphasize that your solution focuses on the “lead management” end of the sales cycle, but I think the supposition that your product doesn’t fall into the CRM category is a bit of a stretch.

http://brand-up.com Robert Goodyear

Justin: CRM is a term that pre-dates software based sales force automation or lead management by several decades. It’s a process and an approach, not a specific tool. While over the last decade the acronym has gravitated to the SFA or lead mgmt application world, in the greater sense of the term, it’s still Customer Relationship Management. And let’s not forget that a customer isn’t a customer until after the sale is closed.

Lester Wunderman from about 1955 onward evangelized a 360-degree relationship marketing process that for the first time gave the post-sales process the attention it deserved. And if you look at pretty much every CRM _application_ out there, it’s about the full lifecycle of LEAD > PROSPECT > CUSTOMER > (ongoing relationship!)

That said, I would agree with the authors that their solution is lead management-focused, and lightweight by design. Looks like it does what it’s supposed to do based on my beta trial that I’ve played with.

+1 for simplicity.

http://www.druvaa.com Jaspreet

IMO, this one is good for small companies who don’t want all those unnecessary features of SugarCRM and likes.

$25/User isn’t a bad price.

They may have to start with a Free users strategy like google Apps or Zoho.

http://www.druvaa.com Jaspreet

I was comparing various options for SMEs (coz I wanted to use one). I was impresses with salesforce.com . All the features I need at $99/user/year –

This product/company wont last in this market. Any quality CRM solution Sage, SF.COM, Commence CRM all have very good lead qualification and lead management systems built into their CRM solution. Maybe at the very low end or free they may get some traction, but their in nothing here that several other guys don’t already provide.

I hope someone can help me with this. My computer has been running a little slow and sometimes when
I’m surfing, these weird sites just pop up on my screen. Some are porn sites and some are advertisments.

I cleared my cache and browsing history but it’s still there. Anyone know how to get rid of this?